Category Archives: Families

Move over Eating Disorders, you undercover bully, invisible master of disguise. Your secret is out. You don’t scare us any more. Vacate, right now. You have been warned. Note this in your diary: Melbourne, May 29-30, 2015. D-Day. Our message is loud, and clear: We no longer live alone, in fear of you. We stand united. We are […]

Eating disorders occur at every age. Scientists don’t know the specific cause, but latest research suggests genetics plays a sizeable hand…around 50 per cent influence or more. It’s almost enough to say ‘well, it’s in the family; there is nothing I can do’. Ah, but there is plenty you can do! Today I had the […]

An eating disorder can be confusing for not only the person with the illness, but for their family and friends. If unaware, family members can get caught up in the eating disorder behaviours, and inadvertently support the eating disorder rather than their loved one. Knowledge is power, for often the person with the eating disorder […]

In several days, 2015 will begin. This small pocket of time, between Christmas and New Year, is a grand opportunity to pause and reflect — like inserting a dot between finishing one chapter of life and starting another. Such time provides a chance to attend to items requiring closure, to repackage wayward thoughts, beliefs and […]

Ginger and Dora are at rest under the apple tree in my backyard. They lie beside my dog Titan, who passed away six years ago. They were all great mates. Together they were an incredibly important part of my eating disorder recovery team. Three of my grand children are visiting today and their visit is […]

Have you found online support helpful in coping with the challenges of diagnosing, treating and recovering from an eating disorder? Either for yourself, or someone you care for? If so, I would love to hear from you. The second half of my upcoming book, Using Writing as a Resource to Treat Eating Disorders: The Diary Healer, explores […]

Laura Collins has a lot to do with the fact that I have been able to write six books on eating disorders in the past six years, and am writing another three. The reason is this: Laura believes in me. After recovering from a four-decades-long eating disorder in 2007, I began to write my memoir […]

Hello from New York City. Today has been a get-over-the-jetlag-day. Tomorrow the 2014 International Conference on Eating Disorders of the Academy of Eating Disorders begins. Hundreds of people involved in the field of eating disorders are gathering here to learn and be inspired in finding answers and improving treatments of this challenging and serious illness. Already […]

We-all-have-a-lot-of-work-to-do to get the right message out about eating disorders. Like, sift the truth from the crap. Here are a few truths to share: Parents do NOT cause eating disorders to develop in their children; children do NOT choose to develop an eating disorder; you do not need to be THIN to have an eating […]

We learn what an eating disorder is like by listening to sufferers and families. But the picture is incomplete: to improve eating disorder care, the voices of nurses and clinicians must be heard too. Gill Todd was clinical nurse leader for eating disorders at the UK’s South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust when she retired in […]